MINERAL CITY, Ohio — An Ohio soldier who died days after being injured in an explosion in Iraq was not assigned to the patrol that ended up being his last, his father said.

“It was his day off, but he volunteered, even though I’d told him not to before he left,” David Barnett, the father of Sgt. Jeremy Barnett, said Monday night. “He was a good kid.”

Jeremy Barnett, 27, of Mineral City, died Saturday at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. He had been wounded Wednesday when a land mine detonated in Ad-Dujayl, Iraq, the Department of Defense said.

“I know he got out of the Humvee to check on something and got hit,” said his father, who lives in Mineral City, about 60 miles south of Cleveland.

Jeremy Barnett was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, where his wife, Stephanie, is a member of the Texas National Guard.

Barnett attended Sandy Valley High School near Magnolia until his junior year and graduated in 2000 from Warren G. Harding High in Warren. After high school, he joined the Navy and spent four years on an aircraft carrier before switching to the Army, his father said.

The soldier was in the third year of a four-year hitch.

“He told me he was not going to be a 20-year man who retired without ever seeing combat duty,” said his uncle, Craig Barnett, of New Philadelphia.

Jeremy Barnett had been staying in contact with his father through e-mail. In his final message, which arrived last week, he told his father that he looked forward to going hunting and fishing when he returned home.

“Hunting and fishing, that was his life,” his father said.

Jeremy Barnett also is survived by his mother and three sisters. Funeral arrangements were pending.

HARTVILLE – Sgt. Jeremy D. Barnett gave his life for his country. Then he gave his heart.

His mother, Michele Barnett of Hartville, was at his side in a military hospital in Germany last week as the Mineral City man lay dying, another casualty of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

“I held his hand, and I put my head on his chest and I knew that that heart was going to continue to beat. His heart was going to live on,” she said Tuesday about the soldier’s plan to donate his organs if things went wrong.

“He saved the life of a 51-year-old person in Europe. Our son’s heart is beating in this person.”

Life support was removed Saturday from the 27-year-old soldier, ending his life and a military career that included service to both the Navy and Army.

“I’m proud of my son,” his mother said. “He gave his life twice. He did what a lot of us would never have enough guts to do, and he did it well.”

His father, Dave Barnett of Mineral City, said he would like anyone who recognizes someone in uniform to “stop and shake his hand. We see in the paper where someone got injured or someone got killed, and we think it’s a shame. We don’t realize how bad it really is until it hits home.”

It hit home hard this week for the Barnett family. Jeremy Barnett also is survived by three younger sisters, Natalie, Emily and Rebecca Barnett.

Natalie Barnett said her brother, a good-natured young man who used humor to break the most tense moments, would want people to know that “he took his job very seriously; he loved his job.”

Their mother agreed. “He loved his country; he loved his service to his country.”

Sgt. Jeremy Barnett and his father e-mailed one another at least twice a week, as the soldier looked forward to returning home to fish and hunt with his dad. And Dave Barnett said he warned his son not to volunteer for anything.

“The last time I talked to him, I told him to do what he was told to do and to do his job, ‘but do not put your hand up,’” the elder Barnett said.

One week ago, the young man suffered “wounds sustained from a land mine detonation,” according to an announcement this week by the U.S. Department of Defense. He had volunteered for a patrol mission as a “first observer” in Ad-Dujayl, Iraq, on his day off. His father explained that the job entailed going in ahead of others to call in for artillery or air strikes.

“There was an explosion,” Dave Barnett said. “The AP is saying it was a land mine. ... No one seems to have a definite answer as to what happened. He got out of his Humvee to check something out. ...”

Army representatives called the Barnett family last Wednesday.

“When I answered the phone and they said it was the Army, I knew that wasn’t good,” Dave Barnett said.

The family flew to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Landstuhl to be by Jeremy’s side.

Family members praised the medical staff and military personnel, saying they worked hard to make the dying soldier as comfortable as possible. They talked about all the volunteers who carry hundreds of wounded soldiers in large buses that serve as ambulances all day, every day. And they talked about the people assigned to coordinate and schedule events to make everything run smoothly during their devastating loss.

The Barnett family also attended the ceremonies during which Sgt. Barnett posthumously was presented with his medals.

The purple medal – “That was something I never wanted to see,” his father said, struggling to hold back tears.

Michele Barnett acknowledged that the parents of every soldier worry while their grown children are fighting in a war.

“Everyone has an anxiety about being over there in Iraq. I thought it (the worst) would be an injury,” she said.

Sgt. Barnett was a soldier’s soldierWednesday, February 28, 2007

Before Jeremy D. Barnett became a soldier in the U.S. Army, he was a sailor in the U.S. Navy. He was good at both, and his medals will be one form of remembrance for the Barnett family of Mineral City and Hartville.

Sgt. Barnett died Saturday after being injured in an explosion north of Baghdad three days earlier. David Barnett said his son was killed after volunteering to go out on patrol on his day off. This was the kind of conscientiousness the family had come to expect from him.

Sgt. Barnett was a soldier who went to war with his eyes open. He had arranged to be an organ donor, and so, his mother, Michele Barnett, said, “He gave his life twice.”

Army Sgt. Jeremy D. Barnett died on 02/24/07 from wounds sustained 02/21/07 in the line of duty in Dujayl, Iraq.

1 comment:

You will never be forgotten buddy! You were a good guy and you did the right thing! Always making us laugh, and always kind hearted. It was a struggle over there in Iraq, but you never quit! I can remember when I was training you, and somethings you would forget, you never quit! You always made effort!